British firm

The British firms are organized crime groups operating in the United Kingdom. The firms found their origins in impoverished white working class neighborhoods, with most being of English or Scottish origin, but some being of Irish or Turkish Cypriot origin. The first firms were formed in the 19th century, and, by 2013, the UK was home to 7,500 different organized crime groups. British firms are largely family-run organized crime groups, and white British groups have always been of primary concern to the government, even with the influx of foreign gangsters and the rise of homegrown gangs consisting of minorities. London's crime families were traditionally centered in the East End, but the restructuring of the East End and the influx of migrants led to crime shifting to South London. Liverpool was also home to several gangs, smuggling heroin and cocaine into the UK, as well as to Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands. The Liverpudlian mafia was known to have close ties to the Real IRA terrorist group, selling it weapons. A Black British organized crime group, the "Black Caucus", would develop in the Toxteth neighborhood of Liverpool, sharing power with the entrepreneurial-minded white firms. The other major clans were based in Edinburgh, Scotland, engaging in the trafficking of drugs and weapons, extortion, kidnapping, scrap dealing, and murder. White British crime families also operate in Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, and Manchester.